PHOENIX (AP) — An advocate for immigrant and civil rights has started
using text messages to warn residents about crime sweeps by a
high-profile Arizona sheriff.

Lydia Guzman, director of the
nonprofit immigrant advocacy group Respect/Respeto, is the trunk of a
sophisticated texting tree designed to alert thousands of people within
minutes to the details of the sweeps, which critics contend are an
excuse to round up illegal immigrants.

Guzman said the messages
are part of an effort to protect Latinos and others from becoming
victims of racial profiling by sheriff's deputies. Deputies have been
accused of stopping Hispanics, including citizens and legal immigrants,
for minor traffic violations to check their immigration status.

"Everyone is responsible for sending it out to their own networks, and
that is how it spreads like wildfire," Guzman said of the text messages.

Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio has repeatedly said his deputies do
not engage in racial profiling, and he publicizes the details of his
crime sweeps ahead of time. He said he suspects the real goal of the
text messages is to help illegal immigrants avoid arrest.

"This
little group of people is (in favor of) open borders, and they don't
like what I am doing. That is the bottom line," Arpaio said. "But it
isn't interfering with our operations because every time we do it, we
still arrest a good number of people, including illegal aliens."

Arpaio has conducted 13 sweeps since March 2008, and deputies have
arrested 669 people, about half of whom were held on immigration
violations.

The sheriff said his opponents are walking a line
between exercising free speech and breaking the law by helping
immigration violators avoid detection. He said the texts are possibly
even tipping off human-smuggling organizations.

Guzman said she
sends the messages to a wide range of groups, including the American
Civil Liberties Union of Arizona, Copwatch and various immigrant-rights
groups such as Somos America and Puente. She concedes that some who
receive the text messages likely use the information to avoid being
caught and deported.

Andy Hessick, a constitutional law
professor at Arizona State University, said sending warnings to people
who might be subject to racial profiling would likely be considered
free speech. But sending messages with the specific intent of warning
illegal immigrants to help them avoid arrest could be akin to being an
accomplice after a crime.

David Hudson Jr., a First Amendment
scholar at the First Amendment Center at Vanderbilt University, said
the messages are protected free speech because they are merely letting
people know what Arpaio is doing, similar to publicizing DUI
checkpoints and speed traps or flashing your headlights when police are
nearby.

"That is not unlawful," he said. "It's the conveyance of truthful information."